Make A Wish
by millie-mione
Summary: Sequel to 'A Chance Encounter'. Petunia, Harry , and Vernon are J.k.Rowling's,and the Cackles Academy gang belongs to Jill Murphy.


Constance wrote Petunia a week later after their run-in at the airport.  
  
She wanted to know how everything had gone with Petunia's decisions.  
  
She knew that the girls and the other staff would sleep for another hour.   
  
This was her way of starting her day off.  
  
She was especially glad that Miss Cackle still slept; because, she hated the way that Miss Cackle always admonished her about getting too little sleep on weeknights.   
  
Amelia just didn't under-stand that things would fall apart under her nose if Constance weren't as vigilant as she usually was.  
  
Constance wished that she had stayed in England a week longer to support Petunia.  
  
It certainly would have lightened the load of emotional guilt Petunia carried around with her all these years.  
  
Constance thanked her lucky stars that she never married.  
  
The whole 'love' scenario was entirely too complicated.  
  
Plus, she always felt that people lost all their logical sense when they called themselves being smitten by 'Cupid's' arrow.  
  
Her talk with Petunia had most certainly validated her feelings on the matter.  
  
Imagine , a champion witch teeming with promise like Petunia falling in 'love' with an unreasonable commoner like that 'Vernon', and then turning away from a destiny that beckoned her to fulfill her true potential just to keep house and slave over hot meals for him .  
  
When she spoke to Petunia at the airport, she had hoped that Petunia would later decide to divorce Vernon.  
  
Constance felt that he was the reason that Petunia treated her nephew so horridly.  
  
She remembered watching Petunia's sister Lily, whom Constance met briefly before the competition, surprise her with a hug and some flowers to show her support of her.  
  
They looked so happy to see each other that it wouldn't have mattered whether Petunia had won or lost.   
  
Constance envied their display of closeness toward each other.  
  
All she had was a competitive relationship with her sisters and cousins.  
  
She remembered the way that her maternal great aunts (Heckitty and company) would compare the girls' achievements to rule out who the best girl was out of all of them.  
  
She wondered what she could have been like had she had a loving family.   
  
She started to cry, but then she decided not to bother with tears.   
  
She knew that it was useless to wish for something she could never have.  
  
After diverting her thoughts a little, she realized that Petunia would probably feel the same sense of useless longing were she to dump her husband, no matter how much of a narrow minded carbuncle he was.  
  
Then, without warning, the urge to visit Petunia's house and turn Vernon into a gila monster hit her.  
  
Why?   
  
She did not know.  
  
Was it perhaps;because, she knew what being deprived of love had been like?  
  
Or maybe, hearing how Petunia let Vernon call her sister's son a freak made her recall how scathingly cruel her maternal relatives could be when they spotted imperfection in their much younger progeny.  
  
Someone knocked at her bedroom door. Who would dare to disturb her at such an hour?  
  
"Enter," she bellowed authoritatively.  
  
It was Mildred Hubble. What on earth could she possibly want? She should be in bed sleeping.  
  
"Well,-----what is it, Mildred?" she inquired feeling irritated that Mildred broke her thoughts.  
  
"There's been an accident, Miss," Mildred said with a pursed look on her face.  
  
Constance knew that this look could only mean trouble.  
  
It was Mildred's signature expression; she used it whenever she got caught doing something that she had no business doing.   
  
She felt her temper rise.  
  
She wanted to take her finger and blast Mildred senseless.  
  
You'd think that someone could possibly learn to stay out of trouble after having made so many silly mistakes.  
  
What would it take to turn this idiot lumax of a girl around?  
  
"Alright, Mildred, first tell me what happened, and second tell me where it happened," Constance said severely.  
  
" It's too awful to explain, Miss Hardbroom. I'll just have to show you where it happened," she said frantically.  
  
Constance followed Mildred to the potions lab.   
There was nothing wrong here.   
This was some sort of stupid prank planned by Mildred and her clique, and she was going to sort it out immediately.  
  
"What do you mean by this, Mildred?!!!!" Constance thundered.  
  
" This !!! One....Two...Three.....!!!!, " she shouted.  
"Surprise!!!!" a whole group of people shouted.  
  
"Happy Birthday, Constance!!!" Miss Cackle shouted to her as she and Mrs. Tapioca held a large birthday cake.  
  
Today was her birthday, and she'd forgotten.   
She listened to everyone sing to her.  
She wanted to cry from happiness.  
Never had anyone ever given her anything like this before.  
She felt silly for thinking that she had never had a loving family.   
This warm display of kindness made her realize that she'd left her miserable childhood behind her and had found the loving family she wanted when she came to teach at Cackles Academy.  
True, everyone knew of and hated her personality flaws, but they adapted to them and learned to accept her as she was.  
That was what families who loved each other did.


End file.
